“Don’t apologize,” I say sincerely. “I often find that people won’t talk about the hard stuff with someone they’re not comfortable with, so truthfully, I see it as a compliment. Blue always tells me I should’ve become a therapist.”
“And I stand by that,” Blue says as she enters the kitchen. She grabs one of the bread rolls out of the basket sitting on the islandthat I haven’t yet put on the table and takes a bite. “What did I miss?”
I cast a glance in Cole’s direction, but his expression and demeanor have already changed back to his usual playful self. “Comparing Marlowe here to a friend of mine. They’re both the ‘mom friend’ of the group.”
“Sounds like we need to get them together,” Blue replies with a wink in my direction, which causes me to roll my eyes. I turn to grab a knife for cutting the ham. “Oh, come on, Mar. Don’t act like you aren’t intrigued by the thought of getting back on the horse.”
“I have enough on my plate, thank you.”
Blue has been trying awfully hard since I dropped Travis off at the rehab center to convince me to get back into the dating scene, but I know I’m not ready yet. Besides, I sure as hell can’t bring another man into Claire’s life. Not yet, anyway.
“He’s not really looking for anything, anyway,” Cole tells Blue with a shrug. “He’s too engrossed in his business ventures.”
“Lame.” Blue takes another bite of her dinner roll as she spins on her heel and exits the room.
I grab the basket of bread and the bowl of corn off the island, asking Cole to bring the ham over to the table. Everyone comes walking in from the living room and takes their spots as my father cuts the ham and puts slices on people’s plates. I hand them out to everyone before they pass things around.
The group digs in as conversation echoes throughout the space, and a smile tugs on my lips at the comfort of it all. Lots of laughter fills the room as stories are shared, Blue, RJ and I sharing memories that the rest of the group hasn’t heard yet—Blue and I jumping off a third story balcony in college when a party got busted, RJ and Blue sneaking into a theme park after hours, RJ and I crashing a wedding.
JJ tells the group some stories from when she was younger, Cole lets it slip that he was a troublemaker growing up, and my dad shares stories of Neve and me when we were kids that have the entire table falling into fits of laughter.
Claire finishes her food before everyone else and asks to go watch a movie while she waits for us to finish up. After her plate finds its way into the dishwasher, she runs past all of us and flips on the television, the sound a quiet hum drowned out by our conversation.
About forty minutes later we all get up from the table, JJ helping me clean up as everyone else goes into the living room. I wash the nicer dishes while she dries them off, stacking them carefully on the countertop.
“I haven’t had a chance to properly thank you,” she says, breaking the comfortable silence that has fallen between us. “Ever since the match event, you’ve been such a great friend to me. Even though I’m extremely happy I found Cole that night, I’m just as grateful that I met you.”
“You’re too sweet.” I hand her the last plate, turning my entire body towards her, and give her a warm smile. “But I feel the same way. Match events aren’t just to find someone to spend your life with romantically, it’s also about creating close friendships. Many people have actually met some lifelong friends along the way. Until this one, though, that hadn’t happened for me.”
JJ looks at me in surprise. “Really? But you’ve been doing this for years.”
“I usually try to keep things professional,” I admit with a shrug. “Sometimes things can get messy if a match doesn’t work, so Kirstin and I always said it was better to not get involved outside of a business standpoint.”
“What made you change your mind?”
My grin grows as I watch her stare at me with a furrow in her brows. “Have you met yourself? It’s hard not to be drawn to you, JJ.”
She surprises me as she throws her arm around me, hugging tightly. I chuckle as I return the gesture. Loud laughter coming from the living room suddenly pulls us apart, almost as if we forgot we aren’t the only two people in my apartment.
“Come on.” JJ grabs my hand and interlaces our fingers together. “Let’s go rejoin the party.”
We walk out into the living room to see Cole sitting on the floor with Claire directly in front of him as they play the hand slap game. Everyone cheers each time Claire wins, causing a smile to come to my face before I interrupt the moment.
“I think it’s time for presents,” I announce, everyone’s eyes turning towards me. Claire squeals and spins around on her knees, grabbing presents out from under the tree to pass around.
I walk over and sit down on the armrest next to Blue, resting a hand on her shoulder. She looks up at me and nods, a small smile on her face as a silent conversation seems to flow between us. Claire comes running over, placing two gifts at Blue’s feet, standing before her.
“Auntie Blue should open her gift first,” Claire states.
“Oh, should I now?” Blue teases as my daughter stays planted directly in front of her.
Claire rolls her eyes, picking up the gift she had picked out and shoving it into Blue’s hands. “We both know you want to.”
Blue laughs as everyone looks on. She rips off the plain gold wrapping paper, discovering a small brown box. RJ pulls out his pocketknife and hands it over so she can cut through the tape. Once the box is open, Blue’s gaze falls on the long black box inside and her eyes widen.
“Open it,” Claire repeats, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
Blue carefully opens the box. I see the tears form in her eyes as she stares down at the necklace; It’s a silver chain with an emerald heart, which is her father’s and Claire’s birthstones. She looks up at me and reaches over, squeezing the hand I have resting on my knee before she turns her attention to my daughter.
